The stamp
The stamp was first issued in Greece on 8th July 1996, on the occasion of the first International Medical Olympiad held in Kos. It’s value was 80 Greek Drachma. It is paired with a stamp depicting Galen.
The doctor
Hippocrates was a physician in Ancient Greece. It is thought he was born on the island of Kos in about 460 BC. There are lots of medical books said to have been written by him, some may have, some may have been written by others, based on his teaching.
It is highly likely that some of his supposed publications may have nothing to do with him at all!
The urology connection
In the Hippocratic Oath, it states:
Thou shalt not cut for the stone, but shall leave this for practitioners of that art ...
This has always been taken as evidence that there were early urologists (or stone cutters) in Ancient Greece when the oath was written.
Hippocrates did advise renal surgery for abscesses – that, basically, meant surgical drainage. He also promoted uroscopy saying:
No other system or organ gives us so much diagnostic information by its excretion as does the urinary tract
He also notes that:
Diseases about the kidneys and bladder are cured with difficulty in old men
View a further Hippoocrates stamp in this collection
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